This is the third in a multi-part series based on a long interview with Todd Nelson, the coach of the Edmonton Oilers’ AHL affiliate Oklahoma City Barons. Part 1 can be found here, and Part 2 here.

Are the same systems being played in Edmonton and Oklahoma?

The short answer is ‘yes’, but the full reality is a little more complicated than that.

“We play very similarly; I think you make tweaks based on your personnel,” explained Barons coach Todd Nelson when asked. “We play both a two-man pressure system in the neutral zone and offensive zone or a one-man pressure system, a 1-2-2 or a 2-1-2. I keep it simple. I don’t call it a wedge or whatever; I keep it simple so my players understand a 2-1-2 or a 1-2-2. We play both. I’ve noticed up top, they play both as well. So whatever system [Oilers coach] Dallas [Eakins] is using up top, our players are able to follow that system.”

Nelson believes the more aggressive 2-1-2 system, featuring two forwards harassing the opposition, is a better fit in most cases for the current edition of the Barons.

“We usually play two-man pressure because we believe in creating turnovers,” he said. “When you look at our team we have skill but we’re not really a ‘skill’ team. We have to be a hard working team and play very good structure and we have to force teams to make mistakes. We’re playing our system well if that happens and we have more offensive zone time.”

Like most coaches, though, Nelson believes in playing a more conservative style to close out games where his team has the lead, sacrificing some pressure on the opposition team in exchange for taking on less risk.

“If we’re up by a goal with five minutes left, I cut it back to 1-2-2,” said Nelson. “Our guys, we practice both ways, and the players know that.”

While Nelson will switch structure based on the game state, he doesn’t believe in over-complicating things, switching structures as the team moves from the offensive zone back to the neutral zone.

“We keep it consistent,” he said. “We’re not going to go one-man pressure in the neutral zone and then two man pressure in the offensive zone. We keep it consistent; if we’re doing two-man pressure in the neutral zone we’re doing it in the offensive zone, so it takes the thought process away a bit from the players and they can just react to it.”

The coaching staffs in Oklahoma and in Edmonton have a lot of contact throughout the year and don’t hesitate to borrow things that are working at the other level.

“We play very similar,” Nelson said. “Dallas has done some things that we’ve done; we’ve done some things that they’ve done. There’s good communication. The way Edmonton’s run their power play at the start of the year, I think power play and penalty kill you tweak it based on your personnel. We started off with an overload power play, very similar to what Edmonton was doing, and then what’s been working for us lately is we slid to a 1-3-1 and Edmonton’s been doing a 1-3-1 as well.”

For Nelson, there’s a delicate balance to be struck with a team’s technical package. On the one hand, it’s important for coaches to be able to adapt to different approaches and to find the optimal strategy for their team, but it’s also vital to ensure that the players aren’t second-guessing themselves on the ice.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” he said. “Simple’s good, as far as I’m concerned; I think the simpler you keep it the better and the players can then just focus on their work ethic and grit and determination.”

Nelson explained that to some degree the evolution of tactics at hockey’s highest levels is cyclical, referencing shifts in the game as teams moved to imitate the best clubs in the league.

“The Oilers were two-man pressure; that was Oiler hockey,” he said, referencing the glory days in Edmonton. “The 90’s, all of a sudden we saw the 1-2-2 come out, and Montreal played it way back when. But Jersey wins with the 1-2-2, and now everybody’s trapping. Then Scotty Bowman won in Detroit with the left wing lock in the neutral zone and people were going into a left wing lock, and that’s a two-man pressure system, so it’s always evolving.”

As much as there’s constant change in NHL tactics, in Nelson’s view the fundamentals really haven’t shifted very much.

“What it comes down to really is one-man pressure or two-man pressure,” he said. “There are different rules within them – one-man pressure, are you taking the walls away or coming down the dot line? Those are little tweaks a coach may make; they might be a little different but the structure is the same. Your F1 [fore-checking forward] still wants to force inside-out to force the play up the wall and then everybody can react and slide over. The basis of the system is the same. It’s like the Vince Lombardi theory; he ran basically six plays but off those six plays there’s all these little things that come off it.”

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